Harv's meth monster project

Post photos of your pride and joy, or updates on your rebuild!

Moderators: reidy, Blacky

User avatar
Errol62
Posts: 10302
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 2:44 pm
State: SA
Location: Adelaide

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Errol62 »

I can only tell you what not to do 8 ). Well you've got a spare set of bolts for the MM.

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

getting my FB ute on the road
EK van on rotisserie
FbSTDwagon
Posts: 790
Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2020 3:04 am
State: SA

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by FbSTDwagon »

Harv wrote: Wed Oct 12, 2022 12:58 pm Technical question:

When I washed out the block, I gave the lifter bores a good scrub (soapy water and nylon bristle bottle brush, degreaser, air dry and oil with light machine oil). I can still "feel" that the bores are not perfect. Nothing nasty, but probably very light corrosion.

What's the best bet for cleaning them up? Brass or stainless wire wheel in the Dremel? Wheel cylinder hone?

Cheers,
Harv
Harv I used a wheel cylinder hone.
Unsure if it’s right or wrong but it polished them up well
Drew
User avatar
Harv
Posts: 5260
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:00 pm
State: NSW
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Harv »

Thankyou.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
FbSTDwagon
Posts: 790
Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2020 3:04 am
State: SA

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by FbSTDwagon »

How’s the motor coming along Harv?
Drew
User avatar
Harv
Posts: 5260
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:00 pm
State: NSW
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Harv »

I'm at one of those points where I need to make a major decision, and keep putting it off.

Two projects on the go - the meth monster FB sedan, and the FED. Both largely the same setup, but the meth monster is dry sumped. That changes the pan and girdle quite a bit.

Fresh built 155ci short motor mostly cobbled together on a stand (... in the house :roll: ). No head... still waiting on the repro head. Ex-speedway Repco head on a stand in the garage.

Need to make a call if the fresh motor will be the dry sumped one (probably wise). If so, cut the girdle ends off (as the sump builder would not build me one with the horrible long girdle ends in place). Block was bored with the girdle in place, so need to check (measure) that nothing moves once the girdle end is cut off. Dry sump pan should arrive this month, so that will probably be the time to make the call.

That will likely leave me with the ex-speedway motor in the FED. Started the strip down last weekend with this in mind - balancer off after a fight, water pump and generator gone. Made the blanking plates for the water pump, sideplate breather and water neck (need to get the brother in law to TIG them for me). Popped off the timing cover, and all was as promised - steel timing gear, very clean inside. Noted the cam number, need to do my homework on what it is (and then think about if it will suit the FED). Mocked up the Norman and ran some masking tape to simulate the belt. It is going to be TIGHT if I run a cam-driven fuel pump, but perhaps possible. Need the final blower location, belts and tensioner in place to decide. For that, I need the blower manifolds. Made them up out of cardboard, and sent them off to get made up.

The reason I am leery of running the speedway motor in the FED is that I'm not sure what bottom end strengthening was done. Once I'm home again I'll spin it and pop the sump, hoping to see a girdle (unlikely) or bridges (hope so). Not so keen to abuse it in the FED with an unrestrained crank... it will run past the 6300rpm mark four times each quarter mile. If it is not braced, then it will need bracing... and that will likely need the crank out for roundness checks. Hoping to avoid that much shenanigans.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
User avatar
Harv
Posts: 5260
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:00 pm
State: NSW
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Harv »

Harv wrote: Sun Nov 27, 2022 8:31 am The crank flange threads are 3/8-24UNF, and ARP make a good flywheel bolt (206-2802) that is designed for Mini flywheels (BMC A-series engines). These are the ones that BS used a while back on his HAMBSTR, and the same as the ones that came with the Repco headed engine I bought a while back.

Ordered some more fancy ARP fasteners, and went to bolt the flexplate up. No joy... the bolts bottom out before clamping the flexplate, as they have a shoulder (not fully threaded). They work fine in a thick flywheel, not so good in a thin flexplate. You could put a washer under the bolt head to take up the slack, but I am a little cautious. The ARP bolts do not use a locking tab (unlike the GMH bolts), and rely on thread locker + bolt head friction to hold them in. It would be just my luck for the washers to stuff up the bolt head friction. A little far fetched perhaps, but launching a flexplate at 8000rpm is not going to end well. Swore, as the ARP bolts are not cheap.

Some hunting through the ARP catalogue shows that 230-7301 are mighty similar but fully threaded. These are made to clamp a torque convertor in a TH350, so very similar load. You can see the difference in thread shoulder in the photo below.
Closing the loop on this one. I was a little hesitant using long 206-2802 ARP flexplate bolts with washers under them to shorten. The reason for my concern was that ARP flywheel/flexplate bolts do not use a locking tab at all, but instead a fancy torque sequence to ensure they do not loosen. I figured if I got cutesy and put a washer under the bolt head it might upset ARP's torqueing, the bolt might loosen, the flexplate try to leave the car and I would say bad words.

Checked with ARP, and they finally got back to me (being impatient, I bought the fully threaded 230-7301 bolts in the mean time). ARP advise it is OK to use an ARP washer under the too-long 206-2802 bolts, but recommend only their own washers as they are hardened and a parallel surface grind. They suggest avoiding star or lock washers. They are equally OK with the use of the 230-7301's in flexplate service.

A little pedantic on my part perhaps, but this thing will spin past 8,000rpm.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
User avatar
Harv
Posts: 5260
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:00 pm
State: NSW
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Harv »

Drysump arrived.
D3E4B58E-BDE4-4582-BA61-1EB5561D8FAB.jpeg
D3E4B58E-BDE4-4582-BA61-1EB5561D8FAB.jpeg (4.26 MiB) Viewed 1336 times
CD7F6C6E-3A6B-453F-A8CE-EA14EB0D4DBA.jpeg
CD7F6C6E-3A6B-453F-A8CE-EA14EB0D4DBA.jpeg (3.7 MiB) Viewed 1336 times
Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
BS
Posts: 402
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:31 pm
State: NOT ENTERED
Location: Brisbane

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by BS »

Good looking bit of gear (or sump) there Harv


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
User avatar
Harv
Posts: 5260
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:00 pm
State: NSW
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Harv »

It took some deep thinking, but I finally realised I had two projects (the FED and the meth monster FB sedan) and one worked block. After some hard mafs with compass, sliderule and abacus, I realised I was one motor short.

Galloway Engines was thinking about doing a run of billet cranks. I had sworn off billet cranks earlier, and figured a reinforced (girdled) factory crank would do. My mind changed a little when it took me half a dozen teardowns to find a single crank that was 10-thou or virgin and uncracked. That crank is destined for one of the two projects, but if it cracks (and I intend leaning on it) then I may have one hell of a time finding another. I bit the bullet, mortgaged a kidney, and signed up for one of Galloway's billet ones.

The crank, caps and studs are now ready to go, and I got to thinking about organising a pallets-worth of freight from WA to western Sydney. The block the crank goes into will need machining, and I started figuring it might be easier to get Galloway to do that work. An EJ block, sleeved as needs be, and mebbe o-ringed for the extra 10psi or so from the Norman....

Freighting a pallets worth of crank from waaaay out west to home will be pretty close to freighting a pallets worth of short block. A call to EKMart and I secured a bare EJ block (with thanks).

The tricky bit of course is how to get the block from the EKMart showroom in the Perth hills to Galloway's workshop in Pinjarra, when one is not located in the state of WA. I didn't realise that EKMart had a side-hussle running:

Logo Uber EK.png
Logo Uber EK.png (4.57 KiB) Viewed 868 times

Many thanks to Blacky for both access to a block and dropping it off - much appreciated.

More to follow as this thing gets machined up.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
Blacky
Posts: 12816
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:58 am
State: WA
Location: up in the Perth hills

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Blacky »

Was a pleasure mate - good to give back to someone such as your good self who has done so much for the early Holden family 👍👍

I would be sorely tempted by one of their stroker cranks - they are a thing of beauty and wonder 😎😎😎 - one small request if I may - can I have any unused main caps back ???
I started with nothing and still have most of it left.


Foundation member #61 of FB/EK Holden club of W.A.
User avatar
Harv
Posts: 5260
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:00 pm
State: NSW
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Harv »

Can do.

I've got to stop talking to Galloway... they have too many cool toys. Crank, bearings, ARP studs, middle bearing caps, SFI damper all got the tick. Trying to remind myself I don't need their adjustable timing gears for what I am doing.... must resist temptation or I'll end up living on 2-minute noodles.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
User avatar
Harv
Posts: 5260
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:00 pm
State: NSW
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Harv »

So two motors on the go.

The EKMart block for the FED is nearing completion in Pinjarra. Mebbe home for Christmas, if not early new year. Billet crank, wet sump, genuine Repco head, no cooling.

The meth monster block for the FB is home again. This one ends up with the factory crank and part-girdle, dry sump, repro Repco head, full cooling. Crank, rods and slugs now balanced and all installed, cam in place. Attached below the gratuitious lump photo. Custom forged slugs for 9.5:!, so smaller lumps than a normal Repco gets.

lumps.jpg
lumps.jpg (669.38 KiB) Viewed 178 times

Went to put the dry sump on, and by some miracle I had no sump gaskets. More on the way. In the meantime I tapped out the dipstick hole for a 1/8NPT plug (no point dipping a dry sump... the plug will make for one less leak point).

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
Blacky
Posts: 12816
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:58 am
State: WA
Location: up in the Perth hills

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Blacky »

MMMM,, those lumpy pistons make my pants lumpy :lol: :lol:
I started with nothing and still have most of it left.


Foundation member #61 of FB/EK Holden club of W.A.
User avatar
Harv
Posts: 5260
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:00 pm
State: NSW
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Harv »

Mocking up, working out how to drive the various ancillaries (magneto, dry sump pump, generator, water pump, fuel pump, supercharger).

If you think the water pump looks frightened…

IMG_1528.jpeg
IMG_1528.jpeg (2.53 MiB) Viewed 76 times

… I scared the guts out if the generator 😀.

IMG_1529.jpeg
IMG_1529.jpeg (2.26 MiB) Viewed 76 times

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
User avatar
Harv
Posts: 5260
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:00 pm
State: NSW
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Harv's meth monster project

Post by Harv »

A few (six :oops: ) years back one of the Mandurah lumpy humpy guys gifted me an alloy timing cover. This will allow me the option to bolt up ancilliaries (fuel pump or dry sump pump) to the snout of the cam. Need the alloy to be rigid enough to bolt to... the pressed tin factory timing cover is not up to it.

It needed a bit of clearancing, as it was made for a boat (where the factory water pump is not used). Time now to rework the seal to get it to mate up to the Ross balancer, then to mate up the fuel pump to the front of it. Still need to work out how to locate and drill the hole in the front to 10 thou tolerance.

If anyone else has an alloy cover they would like to sell please let me know - I promise to give it a good home in the FED :).

alloy timing cover.jpg
alloy timing cover.jpg (716.76 KiB) Viewed 38 times

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
Post Reply